The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as a learning disability that impairs a person’s ability to read, write and spell. Some dyslexics experience other symptoms such as trouble comprehending math, poor coordination or vision problems. Dyslexia is manageable and doesn’t have to hinder success in life, and this is clearly proven by the stories of famous, accomplished dyslexics who overcame their learning challenges and became household names through their achievements and talents. Here are five incredible examples.

1. Charles Schwab

With a net worth of $3 billion dollars, few people would debate Charles Schwab’s success. He graduated from Stanford with an economics degree and started what was to become one of the world’s leading brokerage and banking companies. What most people don’t know is that he is dyslexic. He struggled at Stanford and reportedly flunked English twice. When recalling his attempt to memorize passages from Chaucer, he claims that he couldn’t even get past four words. Schwab wasn’t diagnosed until the age of 40. He explains that his experience with dyslexia led him to develop other capabilities. His advice to others, including dyslexics, is to focus on what you do well and work twice as hard.

2. Steven Spielberg

Unquestionably one of the most successful directors in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg has battled dyslexia his entire life, but he didn’t gain an official diagnosis until 2007. Spielberg credits his parents’ unwavering support for his endurance through his school years and says that he never felt like a victim. He turned his dyslexia into a creative advantage by working elements of himself into his characters. Although it may take him twice as long as others to read a script, he considers it a pleasurable experience to be savoured and not just something to get through.

3. Bruce Jenner

Gold medal winner Bruce Jenner describes his dyslexia as his greatest gift. Diagnosed at a young age, Jenner felt that he needed to excel at sports to set himself apart from others. He has been an Olympian, an actor, an author and an entrepreneur. Now a motivational speaker, he spreads his positive message to dyslexic children and their parents. Jenner is also the host of the documentary “Demystifying Dyslexia,” which explains the use of modern learning techniques and tools for dyslexic students.

4. Whoopie Goldberg

Only a few people have received an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy award, and Whoopie Goldberg is one of them. She has played roles in more than 150 films. Goldberg has also enjoyed success as a singer, songwriter, comedienne, talk show and radio host, political activist and author. Looking at her amazing success and popularity, it is hard to believe that as a child, she considered herself abnormally slow. She wasn’t slow; she was dyslexic. Fortunately, her strength of character and extraordinary talent helped her pull through the difficult years of her youth and fulfill her dreams. Goldberg’s big break, her role in “The Color Purple,” was given to her by fellow dyslexic Steven Spielberg.

5. Henry Winkler

Best known as “the Fonz,” his character on the show “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler boasts a 30-year successful career in acting, directing and producing. You’d never suspect that he carries memories of a childhood filled of struggle and self-doubt due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Although his desire to be an actor developed early in life, he was unable to participate in school plays because of low grades. Despite his learning difficulties, he persevered and crafted the career he dreamed of, often improvising lines or inserting his own jokes into the scripts he struggled to read. His sheer talent hid his weaknesses easily. Winkler was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 31. He is now the author of a series of successful children’s books in which the hero, Hank Zipzer, has dyslexia. Winkler claims that the books’ characters are often based on his own memories.

Adversity as a Tool

Given the impressive achievements of so many famous dyslexics, it’s easy to see why some people refer to their dyslexia as a gift. A condition that presents challenges also bestows excellent coping and problem-solving skills that serve as valuable adjuncts to traditional education. With increased awareness of the condition, better teaching techniques, emotional support and exposure to positive role models, today’s dyslexic children have every reason to believe they can fulfill their dreams and enjoy the best life has to offer.

In this post I want to give you a better understanding of what an Orton Gillingham Approach is and how to implement it into your instruction at home.

What is an Orton-Gillingham Approach?

The approach was created because of research done in 1920s by two individuals, Samuel Torrey Orton and Anna Gillingham, who largely studied reading failure and language processing difficulties. In their research they found eight key instructional principles that helped a struggling reader become successful.

What Orton and Gillingham found was that instruction for a struggling reader must be:

• Language-Based
  The Orton-Gillingham approach is based on a technique of studying and teaching language, understanding the nature of human language, the mechanisms involved in learning, and the language-learning processes in individuals.
• Multisensory
  Orton-Gillingham teaching sessions are action oriented with auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements reinforcing each other for optimal learning. The student learns spelling simultaneously with reading.
• Structured, Sequential, Cumulative
  The Orton-Gillingham teacher introduces the elements of the language systematically. Students begin by reading and writing sounds in isolation. Then they blend the sounds into syllables and words. Students learn the elements of language, e.g., consonants, vowels, digraphs, blends, and diphthongs, in an orderly fashion. They then proceed to advanced structural elements such as syllable types, roots, and affixes. As students learn new material, they continue to review old material to the level of automaticity. The teacher addresses vocabulary, sentence structure, composition, and reading comprehension in a similar structured, sequential, and cumulative manner.
• Cognitive
  When using the Orton-Gillingham approach, students learn about the history of the English language and study the many generalizations and rules that govern its structure. They also learn how best they can learn and apply the language knowledge necessary for achieving reading and writing competencies.
• Flexible
  At best, Orton-Gillingham teaching is diagnostic-prescriptive in nature. Always the teacher seeks to understand how an individual learns and to devise appropriate teaching reading strategies.
• Emotionally Sound
  In every lesson, the student experiences a high degree of success and gains confidence as well as skill. Learning becomes a rewarding and happy experience.

(for more information on the Orton Gillingham Approach click here)

How do you use the Orton-Gillingham Method in your own home instruction?

Recently Shantell Barrett and I created a webinar series called, “The Parents Guide to Teaching Reading” helping parents use these principles in their reading instruction. It is based on the Reading Horizons curriculum, but if understood, the overall framework can be used in the home without purchasing materials or software. I’d love for you to go through this webinar series and gain the knowledge to teach your struggling reader using a proven and effective system.

Once you’ve gone through this webinar series and have begun to apply it in your home we have another free resource to help you retain the knowledge you’ve learned. It is called our Parent Phonics Training Online Workshop and it is an interactive learning tool to refresh any of the skills you’ve learned during the webinar series.

I hope you have found this post helpful. If you have any questions or would like to know more about a particular topic discussed here please leave a comment or reach out to me through email.

In this blog post I want to introduce you to our YouTube channel and give you some of the videos and playlists I’ve found helpful from it: A Strategy for Teaching Students with Processing Disorders, Teaching Reading Tips Playlist (has 34 instructional videos), Dyslexia Help for Parents Playlist (has 14 instructional videos), and an In Your Own Backyard video of a young woman who struggles with reading.

This first video will show you just why Reading Horizons and this blog is so passionate about multi-scensory learning. Pay attention to what Shantell says about the Feedback Loop.

As you go through this Teaching Tip Playlist search for a topic you don’t know about. I hope this helps to make you aware of some things you did not know you did not know! =)

Reading Instruction is made even more difficult when you have a child with a learning disadvantage such as dyslexia. This Dyslexia Help Playlist gives helpful knowledge and instruction for parents who have a dyslexic child.

Finally, here is an inspiring video of a young woman who has overcome her struggles with dyslexia by embracing her very visual mind.

I hope you’ve taken away something from these videos and if you are interested in looking into more stop by our YouTube channel!

With the Easter holidays looming at the end of the month, families budgets tight, and the weather unpredictable: one question on the lips of parents is what can we do on a rainy day at home?

Books could be the answer, and if you can brave the outdoors for a library trip, then all the better – it’s free!

The children’s book market is huge and there are so many titles to choose from, jigsaw books, interactive ones, noisy books and craft books to name but a few. There is bound to be something to please every little boy and girl and with World Book Day coming up, you can use your vouchers and/or visit a book fair and stock up.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson – encourages children to recognise the rhythm and rhyme of words

Usborne Easter Things to Make and Do – Fiona Watt

Hugless Douglas and the Big Sleep – David Melling

Time indoors doesn’t have to be boring or taken up with electrical devices. Why not do a jigsaw book together, make something out of a baking or craft book, or simply enjoy reading the book together. You could re-enact a scene from your child’s favorite book, dress up like your favorite characters or draw a picture of them for your wall.

The only limit to books is your imagination, and we all know a child’s imagination is endless. Next time it’s a rainy day, make the most of being indoors with your child and their favorite book.

Books are an essential part of a child’s life. They help them learn to read, to communicate, to learn about the world, and a good book can feed a child’s imagination to no end. An early reader is often a reader for life, so give your child a head start and open a book.

There are two great blog posts Reading Horizons has that explain the reason for multi-sensory instruction and how to properly apply a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading. Those two posts are: The Connection Between Vocabulary and Reading Skills and A Simple Strategy for Teaching Struggling Readers.

Unfortunately, they are two separate posts and they are on our blog for schools and institutions, not The Reading Corner Blog. For this reason I’ve created this post and combined what is addressed in both to create one super informative post for homeschoolers, mothers, and those of us without an education degree!

It builds the connections that allow us to put it all together! Language is a complex subject; it uses sensory outputs (writing and speaking) as well as sensory inputs (reading and listening) and in order to learn to be a fluent and comprehensive reader we need to be able to connect all the modalities language uses together. Shantell Barrett, a reading teacher, trainer, and dyslexia specialist, explains that connection and its importance quite nicely in this small video clip.

Now that we know the reason for multi-sensory reading instruction, what is the proper way to use it? Well, it is through the process of dictation; the process you use to make the connections there are between reading, writing, speaking, and listening to the English language. Here is a four step dictation process you can use with your child:

Step 1: You (as the teacher) say the word twice (this can be a word you are having your child read, or a word that is part of their spelling or vocabulary list).

Step 2: Have your child say the word back twice.

Step 3: Have your child write the word once.

Step 4: Have your child read the word once (by having them mark the word, decode it, and then read it).

Here is another quick video of Shantell Berrett explaining this process and the results she and others have had when using it. Enjoy!

About Discovery Software

The Reading Horizons Discovery software provides children ages 4-9 with the strategies and skills they need to become confident readers through fun and engaging interactive lessons.

To assure your child’s proficiency, built-in assessments are administered after each lesson, chapter, and comprehension exercise. When a child shows need, the software provides additional instruction and notifies the parent that he or she should intervene with targeted instruction.

To keep students motivated and engaged, the software uses exciting themes, characters, and language-related games. As students successfully master decoding skills and new vocabulary words, they earn coins that are needed to access each game.

Software Features:

• 63 interactive lessons teach students the 42 Sounds of the Alphabet, Five Phonetic Skills, and Two Decoding Skills
• 22 Most Common Words Lessons
• 13 Reference Lessons aligned to requirements of the Common Core State Standards
• Built-in assessments assure proficiency after each lesson, chapter, and comprehension exercise
• The Vocabulary Word Wall allows students to practice decoding skills while building their vocabulary
• 64 full-color, age-appropriate stories help students transfer decoding skills to connected text
• Six fun and engaging games can be accessed with the coins students earn in the lessons, vocabulary section, and reading passages
• The Administration System allows parents to review assessment data

About Discovery Direct Instruction

The direct-instruction materials provide short, scripted lesson plans that require little preparation time. The strategies taught in the lessons drastically decrease a child’s reading, spelling, and pronunciation errors.

By teaching your child to read with Reading Horizons Discovery materials, they are receiving high-engagement instruction that activates many areas of the brain – increasing how receptive and successful students are at learning each skill.

Direct-Instruction Materials Include:

• Teacher’s Manual (six volumes divided by chapter for grades1-3, two volumes for Kindergarten) – scripted, two-color printing
• 132Transfer Cards to help students practice and reinforce decoding skills
• Six Wall Posters for student reference
• Games Supplement includes high-engagement, differentiated activities for each lesson
• Little Books sample set (5 little little books) help students transfer decoding skills to connected text

Each lesson is designed to take between 20 to 30 minutes to teach, with additional practice exercises and games that can be implemented as needs dictate and schedules allow. These concise lessons keep children engaged.

Each scripted lesson includes:

• Skill Review – 5 minutes
• Teacher Instruction/ Teacher Modeling – 15-20 minutes
• Guided Practice/ Dictation – 5-10 minutes or as time allows
• Individual Practice – as time allows
• Reinforcement and Differentiation Activities – as time allow

Take time to learn more about this new and innovative program on our website!

We are so excited to have the best system to teach children to read that to celebrate the release of the new Reading Horizons Discovery program we are having a fabulous giveaway.  Just enter below to win 1 of 10 FREE year subscriptions of the Reading Horizons Discovery Online software or the grand prize of the Reading Horizons Discovery software and teaching kit materials, a $439 value! Contest starts January 28th and goes until February 25th.

Pass this along to any parent with a struggling child or passionate homeschooler you may know.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

In a world that is increasingly interconnected, communication across the globe has become commonplace, creating increased opportunities for those who have mastered multiple languages. Yet, despite approximately 6900 languages in the modern world, only about 1 in 4 Americans can speak a language other than English well enough to hold a conversation. Fortunately, while the need for those speaking multiple languages increases, so too do opportunities for learning languages through online courses and university programs.

Hyperpolyglots receive a great deal of attention for their seemingly supernatural abilities. While a polyglot is an individual who speaks more than one language, a hyperpolyglot, of course, is one who speaks many languages, in some cases more than the average person might even think possible. Hyperpolyglot Ray Gillon received attention for an interview he granted to BBC News. After teaching himself French and Latin at age of eleven, Gillon later studied German and Italian after spending a weekend in Italy while working on a cruise ship. Since then, Gillon has learned eleven languages fluently and eighteen conversationally.

In his book, Babel No More, Michael Erard explores the minds and lives of hyperpolyglots, and according to Erard, those like Gillon are exceedingly rare. However, Gillon predicts that with online resources, an increase in polyglotism is to be expected. “Just looking at my Twitter feed, I see Greek and Chinese and Spanish and Korean,” says Erard. “All of these languages are in front of us in a way that they didn’t used to be. That, along with globalization in general, is creating environments that are giving people who have those brains an opportunity to pursue those languages.”

For enterprising language learners who want to use online resources, the number of programs can be intimidating, yet, there are a few that stand out as particularly strong options. MIT offers undergraduate and graduate studies in French, German, Spanish and Chinese through their pioneering OpenCourseWare, or OCW, program. OCW offers over 100 free foreign language courses as PDF files, sometimes supplemented with audio, video and slide presentations. While college credit is not available for these courses yet, the materials are identical to those paying full tuition for MIT language courses.

“One thing hyperpolyglots do that the rest of us could do is [utilize their resources],” says Erard. While Erard concedes that not everyone can become a hyperpolyglot, the increasing availability of online resources is a definite advantage to learning more than one language. Learning resources like Babbel and Busuu have become popular for their simple, user friendly interface, the availability of many popular and some esoteric languages, and customizability depending on the learner’s proficiency. Many of their resources are free, while more advanced learning tools on Busuu require nominal fees.

As the proliferation of online learning increases, one can expect to find more polyglots and even hyperpolyglots vying for international job prospects or even utilizing their abilities for recreational travel. The next several years will be an interesting time for language learners, and as the technology advances, those with access to online resources will likely have a significant advantage in mastering their foreign languages.

This past January a neuroscientist by the name of Stanislas Dehaene published a study on the extensive impact reading has on the brain. He performed his study with thirty-one Brazilian adults who’ve learned how to read from an early age, twenty-two adults who learned how to read at an adult age, and ten who’ve never learned how to read. His study was performed by using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain function of adults while they responded to oral language, written language, and visual tasks. From this study a few conclusions have been made on how reading helps improve the function of the brain.

The occipital lobe is the area of the brain that processes visual information. Among the readers it was enhanced, showing that the literate readers could process visual information more accurately.  Reading is a form of visual exercise. The visual stimulation of reading exercises the occipital lobe.  This helps with the imagination, which will also help with creativity. The occipital lobe also has a big impact on making decisions.

The parietal lobe is the part of the brain that turns letters into words, and words into thoughts. Among the readers it was enhanced and stimulated. The parietal lobe is mainly recognized for its ability to increase writing skills. It also helps with reading comprehension. When anyone is reading, the parietal lobe becomes very active and works with the temporal lobe to store information.

This study tells us that reading impacts every aspect of a person’s life. Reading is a great exercise that helps people process information verbally and visually. Those that don’t read will struggle with processing verbal information. This explains why a slow reader will be slow in other academic areas. With the lack of verbal and visual comprehension skills, if slow readers don’t change they will have higher chances of divorce and job unemployment. Reading really improves every aspect of communication skills.

Mental stimulation will improve brain function. Reading is clearly the best way to increase mental stimulation. The best part about mental stimulation is that it will develop new neurons, no matter how old the individual is the brain can still create and develop new neurons. This is exciting news for everyone because it shows that we should really invest the rest of our lives into education. Most importantly, this shows the vital importance of teaching your child how to read if you’re a parent.